Registering a business company abroad and setting up a corporate bank account for it is an excellent way to diversify and protect your financial assets. We invite you to consider the combination of a Gibraltarian company and a Mauritian bank account.

The territory of Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a tiny state at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. From the shore, Morocco in Africa can be seen across the Straits of Gibraltar. The country’s area is less than 7 square kilometers (about 2.5 square miles) and its population is currently over 30,000 people. Gibraltar is de jure a British overseas territory but it is self-governed and has its own parliament. Besides, Gibraltar is an independent EU member state. It is a low-tax zone but the word ‘offshore’ is used nowhere in the Gibraltarian legislation. The legal status of this territory makes it perfect for establishing a business company there. Gibraltar is located in Europe, it is never referred to as an offshore zone but at the same time, it has advantages that other European countries do not possess.

In particular, Gibraltar applies territorial taxation system that makes tax exempt all profits that its resident companies make abroad, outside the territory of Gibraltar. The corporate tax levied on business transactions with the country’s resident companies and individuals is 10%. Taxes are lower in Gibraltar than in any other European country.

Establishing a business company in Gibraltar

Any company incorporated in Gibraltar shall have an office and thus a postal address where all the statutory correspondence will be sent. In addition to that, a Gibraltarian resident shall be employed as the company Secretary. Annual company renewal fee of 200 pounds shall also be paid. If your company does not derive any income from business transactions within Gibraltar, the expenditures described above will make up your Gibraltarian corporation maintenance costs.

In addition to that, all Gibraltarian companies – foreign or domestic, active or dormant – shall obtain a tax identification number. Without this number doing business and filing accounts in Gibraltar is impossible.

In keeping with the European regulations, identities of the Gibraltar company beneficiaries and directors must be revealed to the public. We realize that this can be a matter of concern for some business people. However, nominee shareholder/ director services are available in the country and the owner’s name that appears on the Registration Certificate does not have to be the name of the real company owner. Gibraltar nominees will have no signatory powers whatsoever, thus no fraudulent acts on their part are technically possible.

At the same time, when registering a corporation in Gibraltar, the true company beneficiaries have to identify themselves to the Registrar. That is to say, the country authorities will know the name of the true owner but not the general public. With nominee shareholder/ director services, your name as the company owner will be disclosed only if you violate the law. If you play by the rules, laymen – such as your competitors, for example, – are not going to know who the real company owner is. The nominee services come at a cost, of course, but it is nothing extravagant.

One more factor that potentially may make Gibraltar look less attractive in the eyes of a business investor is the obligation to file company accounts. However, this requirement holds only for medium-size and large Gibraltarian companies. Now, a company with an annual turnover of more than 6.5 million pounds qualifies as medium-size in Gibraltar. If your corporation turnover is below this amount, you will only have to file a simplified version of the balance sheet that does not have to contain profit and loss accounts. Preparing this sort of balance sheet is quite an easy and fast thing to do.

Another important feature that Gibraltar possesses is the absence of added value tax. This is the only place in Europe where no VAT is levied.

There are countries on the planet where you can establish a business corporation at a lower cost than the one you have to pay to register a company in Gibraltar. However, these are offshore jurisdictions, which will entail troubles when setting up a corporate account for your company registered there. Far from every bank in the world will provide services to offshore companies nowadays. If a bank does agree to open a corporate account for such company, its service fees are going to be considerably higher than those applied to onshore companies. Thus, the overall company maintenance costs are probably going to be higher if you opt for a jurisdiction where company registration is less expensive.

As far as Gibraltar is concerned, it is a perfectly respectable jurisdiction and even the most cautious banks will cooperate with Gibraltar resident companies. We invite you to consider the possibility of opening a bank account for your Gibraltarian company in Mauritius.

Mauritian banking system

A corporate account in a Mauritian bank will bring several benefits to your foreign company. It will serve the needs of an international trade or investment company especially well.

Mauritius is an independent African state that has the second strongest economy in the region. The country’s banking sector has been supporting the economy since the early 19th century. Over the recent decades, the banking and offshore services in Mauritius have been showing a steady growth.

Mauritius has a traditional banking system. The Central Bank was established in 1967 there and its structure and functions were borrowed from Great Britain. This bank issues licenses to the private banks that meet the requirements that his regulator puts forward to the country’s financial institutions. Non-banking depositary institutions are also accountable to the Central Bank of Mauritius.

The benefits of having a corporate bank account in Mauritius

The level of corruption in Mauritius is very low and the banks work stably. There is a favorable environment for doing business in the country. A large number of foreign corporations looking to find new markets and expand their business operations establish presence in Mauritius. Mauritian banks are regarded as highly reliable not only in the African region but in the whole world. At the same time, opening a bank account in Mauritius is easier and faster than doing that in the first-world countries.

Most European banks will have rather tough requirements to the prospective clients while Mauritian banks are not so demanding. Even a beginner entrepreneur stands a good chance to quickly set up a corporate account with a Mauritian bank. The banks provide services of the highest quality while charging fair fees for them.

Advantages of opening a corporate account in a Mauritian bank:

Competitive service prices;

Remote access to the account;

Confidentiality of the client’s financial information;

High-quality client support in the English language.

Who can open a corporate account in a Mauritian bank?

Banks in Mauritius will deny service to business companies registered in certain national states. This should be of no concern to you, however, as they will happily provide services to a Gibraltar resident company.

When applying for corporate account opening in Mauritius, you will have to specify the types of business activities your company is engaged in. Just like anywhere else in the world, bankers in Mauritius want to have a clear understanding of what the applicant company does before they open an account for it. At the same time, Mauritian banks will be satisfied with all types of business activities with the exception of illegal ones.

Mauritius is a member of CRS (Common Reporting Standards) group and thus its banks are obliged to disclose their clients’ financial information to tax authorities in other countries upon their request. But this should be of no concern to you either in case your Gibraltarian company draws income from business operations that it conducts abroad. Such income is not taxed in Gibraltar anyway.

A corporate bank account in Mauritius for your Gibraltarian company

Here we are inviting you to consider establishing an account with a Mauritian bank that we have very warm relationships with. It is not difficult at all to set up a corporate account with this bank: all you have to do is use the services of a professional intermediary company such as Offshore Pro Group.

To make transactions with the account in this bank you can use their online platform that is accessible not only from your computer but also from your tablet or smartphone. With the online banking system, you can manage your account, make and receive payments wherever in the world you are at the moment. The bank charges competitive commissions and makes SWIFT transactions within one business day.

You can open a single-currency or a multiple-currency account with this bank. Money is usually kept in US dollars in Mauritius but you can also make transactions in the following currencies: EUR, GBP, MUR, AUD, CHF, and AED.

The bank issues credit and prepaid MasterCard bankcards that you can use to pay for goods and services or to withdraw cash form ATM’s in the countries of the world where you can find ATM’s. Your credit card can be linked to your account, which will make servicing the card simpler.

The minimum required initial deposit to a corporate account in this bank is US$ 200,000. The account maintenance fees and incoming and outgoing payment commissions are quite reasonable.

Please bear in mind, however, that this bank, like most other banks, wants to see that your account is active. This means that payments have to come to, and go from, your corporate account with some frequency. If the account remains inactive (or ‘dormant’) for one year, the bank managers will want to contact the account holder. If they are unable to make contact with him or her during six months of trying to do that, the account balance will be transferred to a deposit in the Central Bank of Mauritius.

Opening a bank account in Mauritius with Offshore Pro Group assistance

Friendly as our Mauritius partner bank may be, it does not accept applications for services in any random form. You have to be prepared to submit quite a large number of various documents and all of them have to be completed in a proper way. If certain information is missing in the application documents or if some of them are not filled out correctly, the bank may deny services to the applicant. We will gladly help you collect the right package of documents and make sure they look the way the bank wants to see them. Please write to us to info@offhore-pro.info and request our combined service “a company in Gibraltar plus a corporate bank account in Mauritius”.

Before you do so, however, you have to take the following bank requirements into consideration:

The scan copies of all the bank forms have to be of high quality and legible;

The scan copies of all corporate documents must also be legible and notarized and apostilled in addition to that;

The passport copies of all account signatories have to be made in color;

You will have to submit agreements with, and invoices to/ from your main business partners;

You will have to provide a brief description of the types of your company business activities;

If you would like to open a corporate account in the Mauritian bank for a company that already exists, please mind that you will have to submit your latest tax report to the bank.

In addition to meeting these requirements, you will have to supply the following corporate documents in order to set up an account in Mauritius:

Company Memorandum and Articles of Association;

Company Charter/ Bylaws or any other organizational documents that the company has;

Certificate of company registration with the Gibraltarian authorities;

Identification documents for all company directors, shareholders and other beneficiaries and proofs of addresses for each of them.

The procedure and the terms of company formation and bank account opening

If you are interested in this offer, please contact us via e-mail info@offshore-pro.info and place a service request with us. You will have to cover the full cost of the service to let us begin preparing all the necessary documents. You can make the payment in any form you wish: by a bank transfer, credit card, an online payment system, and so on. We even accept Bitcoins!

When we receive the payment, we will have to register the company for you in Gibraltar first. We will send you the list of the required documents by e-mail. These will include the company beneficiaries’ ID’s and documents certifying the legality of the investment funds sources. The process of company formation in Gibraltar usually takes five days or less. You do not have to travel to Gibraltar or anywhere else in order to establish a business company in this jurisdiction: everything can be done remotely with our help.

When the company is registered in Gibraltar, we will initiate the process of establishing a corporate bank account for the company in Mauritius. While the Gibraltarian state authorities are processing the incorporation documents, we have to ascertain that all the documents meant to go to the bank are in good order and correctly completed.

When we find that they are, we will send the package to the bank for preapproval. Obtaining a preapproval from the bank is not a 100% guarantee that the account will be opened for the company but this is business half-done anyway: it means that the bank is prepared to consider your application. After seven business days since the date the preapproval has been obtained, you will normally have a corporate bank account in Mauritius operative. Please bear in mind though that the bank compliance department may ask for some additional documents as it processes your application.

We will be pleased to assist you in protecting your assets and increasing your wealth.

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IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE: Offshore Pro Group offers a professional service for international individuals and companies which includes analyzing your banking needs, recommending the best international banks and card issuers for you, and helping you complete the application and account opening process. Offshore Pro Group is not a bank, financial institution or payment card issuer.